Underhaze
by Mystic Door
Summary: Short story based off of the song Heat Haze Daze (or Kagerou Daze.) Character Death.


Okayyy, so this is kind of a short I wanted to write, it's based off of the song Heat Hazed Days.

Also to anyone who follows my other story, sorry I haven't been updating. I know I keep saying I'll update but with college in the way, I find it hard to keep up. I will however post another chapter soon though I sort of plan on completely rewriting it **_completely_** and just post one chapter a day to get it completed. Once again, sorry.

c= Enjoy!

xxx

Sans woke up with a start as he heard Papyrus' voice from down stairs calling his name. He sat up on his bed, his skeletal hand rubbing his eye sockets as he pulled out his phone from under his pillow. Paps had made it a habit to wake him up earlier these days to go out for patrolling and though a part of him didn't want to know what time it was, another part of him was curious. Pressing the button, the screen lit up to a picture of him and Paps as well as the date and time. August 15th, 7:00am. It wasn't early for Paps, but definitely early for him. With a light groan, he got out of the bed, put on his slippers and slid on his favorite blue winter jacket. He could already smell the spaghetti and for once, it didn't smell like it could kill him. Teleporting downstairs, he was greeted with the sight of his younger brother making this morning's pasta.

"Sans! You finally woke up you lazy bones!" As usual, Paps gave him the biggest and widest smile he possibly could. Papyrus grabbed a plate and placed spaghetti on it before handing it over to the shorter skeleton. "Eat up! We're going to catch a human today. I can feel it!" Sans gave him a sheepish nod and sat on the table with his plate. Taking a bite of the spaghetti, he braced himself for the disgusting taste of too much salt but instead was pleasantly greeted with something somewhat edible. Perhaps Undyne's lessons were finally paying off?

"Well?" Paps edged on. Sans looked up from his plate confused. Papyrus gave a slightly annoyed 'nyeh.' "The food! Do you like it?" As if snapping out of it, he nodded.

"Yeah Paps. Of course. It tastes really good. For a second there I thought I was going to _pasta_ away." Papyrus let out a groan. "If you keep making pasta this good I'm going to think you're an _impasta._ " Paps screamed.

"SANS!" Sans couldn't help but laugh at his brother's frustration. "Hurry up! We've got catching to do!" WIth those words, Paps left the kitchen and went upstairs, leaving Sans to his thoughts. Looking down at his plate, Sans played with the remainder of his food as he got the...oddest feeling of dejavu. His eyesockets narrowed as his pin pricks glared at the food in front of him. Why did he feel like he had done this before? Deep in his thoughts, about thirty minutes passed before Paps interrupted his train of thought.

"Sans! It's time to go!" Sans had a bad feeling, but how could he deny his brother? Leaving the plate, Sans left with the taller skeleton for patrolling.

xxx

A gasp escaped Papy as he saw for the first time, a human! Sans smiled at Papyrus' bewilderment and excitement. He knew his brother had been feeling down lately and capturing a human would definitely lift his spirits. As Papyrus began his speach, Sans couldn't help but... have a really bad feeling. His pin pricks moved between the human and Papyrus, analyzing the situation. Everything _seemed_ to be going fine but... once again the feeling of dejavu seemed to take over. Why had he felt like he had done this before? Surely this had to have been the first time he had ever met the human. Just as he was about to dismiss it as being paranoid, a gleam caught his eyes. It was a knife...full of dust.

"Papy! No!" Sans cried out as he ran towards Papyrus. Papyrus turned towards his brother only for the human to cut him into two in one swift motion.

"S-Sans...?" His brother let out in a dying gasp, as if overwhelmed that this could actually happen. Tears filled Sans' eye sockets as his brother began to turn to dust, only to leave behind his scarf. How could he let this happen? How? His gaze turned towards the human. They had a sickening smile as a red shadow of the human appeared behind them with an even sicker smile.

"This is real..." it said as Sans tried to put himself together by denying that Papy was dead. Like cricket chirps becoming very disturbed, the snow faded away and his world became black.

xxx

The next morning, Sans woke up panting. His skull was sweating as he looked around his messy room, confused as to how he had gotten back him. He cradled his skull in his skeletal hands as he stared at the bed. It was a nightmare that seemed so real. The smell of Papyrus' dust still burned his skin. With a shaky hand, he pulled out his phone only to use his blue magic and throw it against the wall. August 15th, 7:00am. He head Papyrus yell for him as it sunk in... it was exactly like the nightmare. He quickly jumped out of the bed, got dressed and flew down the stairs. Once again, he was greeted by the sight of Papyrus' back as he made spaghetti.

"Hey S-" Sans could help himself as he launched himself at his brother and hugged him with all his might. "S-Sans? Are you alright?" He hugged his brother back, of course but was mostly confused over the affection.

"You're alright Papy..." Sans murmured to himself.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. What's...?"

"Can we not go human hunting today?" His voice quivered as he looked up at his brother, his only family as well as his reason for living. "Please Paps, I just...I just have a bad feeling." Papyrus, not being one to say no to his brother in the first place, nodded and gave him a sad smile.

"Alright brother! We shall instead go visit Undyne!" Sans let out a sigh of relief as he nodded and ignored today's plate of Pap's breakfast and instead headed towards the door. Perhaps if they left earlier, they could avoid the nightmare and if he was lucky, he could warn Undyne and they could stop this threat. He waited as Papyrus turned off the stove and stored the food for another day before joining him. He could see the look of confusion on Papy's skelletal face as Sans rushed to get to Waterfall, this could probably be the first time Papy had seen Sans so productive instead of lazing about. Just as they reached the border between Snowdin and Waterfall, they heard a scream. Sans' left eye glowed blue as Papyrus stopped and turned behind them. Someone was in trouble. Papyrus turned towards Sans and gave him a worried look.

"We have to help, brother!" He exclaimed as he turned towards the scream before Sans could protest. Chasing after his younger brother, Sans called out his name only to be ignored.

"Papyrus!" Having longer legs, Papy was faster and even though Sans had short cuts, he had to know exactly where his brother was in order to take a short cut to him. "Papyrus!" He cried out again.

"B...Brother..." He heard Papy's voice faintly which immediately made him 'short cut' to his voice. There stood Papy, face to face with Sans' worst nightmare. Papyrus turned towards his brother, a very clear slash across his torso. He was too late. Sans fell onto his knees as his brother began to turn to dust. Sans let out a scream of anguish as he watched the smile of his little brother fade away while his world faded once more to black. The words, "You can't stop this." echoing in his skull.

xxx

Months, possibly years had passed with this one day repeating. How many resets? How much more did he have to go through before this all ended? Every day was the same as the first, Sans would wake up in cold sweat and every day he would try to prevent his brother's death. Each attempt was futile. Sans was a broken skeleton, he was tired and heartbroken. Almost...emotionless. How many times had he heard the same lines as he blacked out that, "this is real?" It was mocking him, showing him how powerless he was to save the one monster that meant the world to him. Sans sat on his bed, his skull buried in his knees, with his phone beside him reading August 15th 7:00am.

He saw himself and Papyrus going through the same old rounds again, recalibrating the same damn puzzles, greeting the same damn monsters... and then he saw his brother run off. There was only one way out... Quickly, he teleported towards his brother and just as Papyrus was about to get hit by the human, Sans pulled Papy away and let the knife cut him instead. He saw the bewildered expression of the human as well as the red being beside it. Sans gave it a smile as he finally felt like this was going to be different.

"Serves you right." He said only to be surprised when the red copy began to tear up. Flash backs began to overwhelm his memory as he saw himself trying day in and day out to save his brother only to end up in failure. Papy's let out a cry as he reached towards his brother, only to fall to his knees and grasp at the dust that simply flew past his fingers. A light blue copy of Papyrus and the human appeared behind him with a smirk.

xxx

A skeleton sat on his race car bed, tears sliding down his cheek bones as he glanced at his phone. A sense of failure almost overwhelming him. He hugged his knees to his chest as he whispered to himself, "I failed again..." The phone beside him turned on, flashing the date, August 14th.


End file.
